Dugan-Tarango Middle

Dugan-Tarango Middle is a 124-student school serving grades 5–8 at 1352 Hardin St in Lordsburg, a small town in Hidalgo County in New Mexico's far southwest corner, and it is the only middle school in Lordsburg Municipal Schools. It is also the only school of any kind within 20 miles, so there are no neighboring schools to compare it with — the district and the state are the only available benchmarks.

Statewide, the school ranked 136th of 191 middle schools in 2025–26 — 29th percentile, one star. That is a sharp drop from the two years before, when it reached 65th and 55th percentile, its best showings of the past decade. Proficiency sits below the New Mexico average in every subject: language arts 32.46% versus 43.34% statewide, science 26.67% versus 33.40%, and math 13.27% versus 25.54% — roughly half the state rate. The school does outperform its own district in English and math, but the district as a whole sits well below the state, so the state is the more useful comparison.

The most surprising detail is that the 2025–26 decline was an English language arts story: math (10.43% → 13.27%) and science (21.15% → 26.67%) both improved, while ELA fell 12 points in a single year (44.74% → 32.74%) against an essentially flat state figure. Math remains the chronic weakness, never exceeding 13.27% across four years, though it is trending gently upward. Grade-level results swing widely in a school this small — 5th and 8th grade came in near state level in ELA while 6th grade lagged, and several grade-level results were suppressed by the state for privacy. Capacity has improved (student–teacher ratio 14.5 → 11.4), and essentially every student is counted as economically disadvantaged, yet in 2024–25 the school posted its best rank of the decade. The 2026–27 ELA result will show whether this year's drop is genuine regression or small-school volatility.